Great white named Lydia heading to Europe

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 6 March, 2014 - A great white shark called Lydia is about to make history as the first of its species to be seen crossing from one side of the Atlantic to the other. The satellite-tagged 4.4m-long female is currently swimming above the mid-Atlantic ridge - which marks a rough boundary line between east and west.

Lydia was first tagged off Florida as part of the Ocearch scientific project. The shark has travelled more than 30,500km (19,000 miles) since the tracking device was attached. Lydia is now roughly 1,600km (1,000 miles) from the coasts of County Cork in Ireland and Cornwall in Britain, and nearly 4,800km (3,000 miles) from Jacksonville, Florida, where she was tagged by scientists in March 2013.

“We have no idea how far she will go, but Europe, the Med, and the coast of Africa are all feasible” said Dr Gregory Skomal of the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries.

Though Lydia's journey is impressive, the sharks are known for their marathon migrations of thousands of kilometres. A great white nicknamed Nicole travelled from South Africa to Australia and back - a circuit of more than 20,000km (12,400 miles) - over a period of nine months between November 2003 and August 2004.